Plankton are small, often microscopic, creatures that largely just drift with the ocean current (as opposed to animals like fish that can swim through the current). Despite being small, they pack a big punch in marine ecosystems because a wide variety of marine life survives only by eating plankton.

Small plankton volume

Two figures showing the trends in the average volume of small plankton (tiny, often microscopic creatures floating in the water) collected in the ocean in CalCOFI net samples taken only at sites in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary region (top) and all sites over the Southern California Shelf (bottom) each spring from 1978-2015. Click the map tab to compare the two sampling regions. Figure credit: A. Thompson/NOAA; Ben Best/EcoQuants.

Two figures showing the trends in the average volume of small plankton (tiny, often microscopic creatures floating in the water) collected in the ocean in CalCOFI net samples taken only at sites in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary region (top) and all sites over the Southern California Shelf (bottom) each spring from 1978-2015. Click the map tab to compare the two sampling regions. Figure credit: A. Thompson/NOAA; Ben Best/EcoQuants.

Click for Details Horizontal lines show the mean (dashed line) ± 1.0 standard deviation (solid lines) over the full time series. Symbol at upper right indicates whether data over the last five years (green shaded areas) had a positive trend (up arrow), a negative trend (down arrow), or no trend (↔). Symbol at lower right indicates whether the mean over the past five years was greater than (+), less than (-), or within 1 standard deviation (●) of the mean of the full time series. For more information, consult Figure App.F.12.18 in the CINMS 2016 Condition Report. For more information, consult Figure App.F.12.18 in the CINMS 2016 Condition Report.

Map of sampling stations

A map showing the locations of spring season net samples by CalCOFI for use in analyses of abundance and trends in pelagic resources. Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary region (red) includes CalCOFI stations inside and adjacent to CINMS; and Southern California Shelf (yellow) includes all CalCOFI stations over the shelf. Figure credit: A. Thompson/NOAA, Ben Best/EcoQuants.

A map showing the locations of spring season net samples by CalCOFI for use in analyses of abundance and trends in pelagic resources. Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary region (red) includes CalCOFI stations inside and adjacent to CINMS; and Southern California Shelf (yellow) includes all CalCOFI stations over the shelf. Figure credit: A. Thompson/NOAA, Ben Best/EcoQuants.